The UN Security Council has unanimously agreed to impose sanctions on North Korea to punish it for testing a nuclear weapon and to prevent further proliferation.
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday voted unanimously to impose sanctions against North Korea in response to the country’s claimed nuclear test. The vote was scheduled soon after negotiators agreed on the sticking point of cargo inspections, the language over which China had expressed some concerns earlier.
Rather than mandating stop and search operations, “the resolution will say to countries to inspect as necessary all goods going in and out of North Korea,” CNN’s Richard Roth reported. The aim is to stop materials and technology that could be used for nuclear weapons production from going to or from North Korea.
Diplomats from the five permanent council members plus Japan gathered in closed-door meetings Saturday morning to reach agreement. While details of the draft resolution were incomplete, diplomats said it could prevent materials for weapons programs and luxury goods from being sold to North Korea.
The language is directed at North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who has a long, documented record of living a life of luxury while his people wasted away in famine. On Friday U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said, “The North Korean population’s been losing average height and weight over the years, and maybe this will be a little diet for Kim Jong Il.”
Earlier Saturday, Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. Wang Guangya expressed concerns about the draft’s stop and search provisions. “… This interception idea, once they put it in operation, it could easily lead by one side or the other to a provocation of conflict which would have serious implications for the region, for the countries,” Wang said.
My prediction is that the net effect of this will be zero. Predicting that the pronouncements of the UN Security Council are worthless is really going out on a limb, I know, but that’s the kind of bold insight you’ve come to expect from OTB.
